Maybe the Hardships Are Really the Greatest Love

As I concluded my study of Job, it became obvious that the most destructive thing that happened to Job wasn’t the loss of his livestock, or the painful sores, or even the loss of his children.  Yes – all of those things were terrible, agonizing events.  I will not minimize the pain he felt.  But I also recognize that they were temporary events.  They were terrible for a moment but not for an eternity.  What I think could be the most destructive thing to Job was his prosperity.  Things were going so well for Job that he had lost his sense of his relationship with God.  And that has very eternal consequences.

We want the Garden of Eden.

That is such a foreign thought to me – that good things can turn into the worst things.  I mean – we all want prosperity, right?  Maybe not so much riches and material wealth.  But we want to be happy and healthy.  We want connections to other people.  We want to feel like we are being honored and rewarded by God.  We want to feel Him smiling at us because we are so conscientiously trying to walk in obedience, blameless before Him.  We want the exact situation Job was in at the beginning of the book. We want the Garden of Eden.

It is what we all long and pray for. 

There is nothing wrong with hoping for that.  But there is a dangerous downside.  When we first meet Job, he is doing so well.  He has a lot of wealth and obviously has been very blessed.   He has a big family and he is teaching them to sacrifice and to follow God.  Later, as he talks about all he did in his life before his trials, we see that he helped orphans and widows and people in need.  God Himself, as He is talking to Satan, points out the blamelessness and righteousness of Job.  Job has it all. That’s pretty good, right?  It is what we all long and pray for.  It is what God gave Adam and Eve when He first created them.  It is what is promised in the next life to those who follow Jesus.  What could possibly be wrong with that?

God brought Job to Satan’s attention, knowing how Satan is.

And yet – do you notice what God did as He talked to Satan?  Satan was not the one who mentioned Job.  God brought Job to Satan’s attention, knowing how Satan is.  Knowing that Satan would be infuriated at the righteousness and prosperity of Job.  Knowing that Satan would hate the faithfulness and obedience of Job.  Knowing that Satan is a lion, seeking whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).  And God goes one step further and allows Satan to torment Job, taking away the material wealth, the children, and the health that Job so enjoyed. Why would God do that?  What kind of a loving God would actively participate in such a thing, and even worse, record it for all of history to read?  That is one of the things that I have struggled with so much with this particular book of the Bible.

If Job had remained prosperous and happy and healthy, he would never have known that it was all tainted by sin. 

I don’t pretend to know what God is thinking by any means.  It may even be something I get to ask Him about some day.  But for now, there were a few things that struck me as I looked at Job’s entire story.  Job wasn’t really as righteous and blameless as he appeared to be.  Yes, he was a good person and was trying to be obedient.  But as Job’s trials increased, Job’s sin was revealed.  He was arrogant.  He was self-righteous.  He thought himself equal to or even better than God in knowing how things should be.  If Job had remained prosperous and happy and healthy, he would never have known that it was all tainted by sin.  And he would have had to account for that sin later, rather than during his time on the ash heap.  Not only that, but those hidden beliefs and sins were distancing him from God.  They were affecting his relationship with God on a daily basis.  He didn’t really trust God.  It came out later that he thought God could be unfair, distant, uncaring, and cruel.  How can you walk closely with someone you hold those beliefs about?

Only God can see a man’s heart.

Even Satan wouldn’t have known Job’s heart.  We see that Satan was wrong about the faithful part of Job’s heart.  Satan truly believed that if he could just hurt Job enough, Job would totally turn against God.  Job, for all of his complaining and accusing and failing to humble himself to God, still believed.  He didn’t tell God he was through with Him.  He gave beautiful praises about knowing his Redeemer lived and that some day, he would be redeemed.  Satan also wouldn’t have known where Job was in most need of correction and sanctification.  Only God can see a man’s heart.

God allowing the trials of Job was actually a mercy in the eternal sense.

God allowing the trials of Job was actually a mercy in the eternal sense.  God knew what was keeping Job from being closer to Him.  God knew the sin that was eating at Job’s soul.  And God did exactly what it took to get Job to see it, too.  Even if it took letting Satan play a part for a little while.  Even if it meant that Job struggled and hurt for a season.  It was an example of divine tough love.

To me, the most powerful moment in the book of Job is in Job 42:6.  There, Job says, “Therefore I despise myself and repent in sackcloth and ashes.”  It is the moment when Job makes his relationship with God right.  It is the moment when he releases the arrogance and finally becomes real and vulnerable and available to God.  It is the moment he gains eternity.

God’s plan of redemption is present in the oldest book of the Bible.

Interestingly, he does it the exact same way we do it when we gain eternity.  Earlier in verse 2, he acknowledges that God is all powerful.  He accepts the holiness and sovereignty of God just as we acknowledge the same thing of Jesus.  He then confesses his sin in verse 3, saying he misspoke about God.  In verse 4, Job acknowledges that God is the Lord over his life – his ruler who commands him and to whom Job must account. We also acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus and that it is He who will judge the world. In verse 5, he acknowledges that he sees God and is truly ready to know Him and walk with him.  We also see all that Jesus is and ask Him to walk with us.  And then in verse 6, Job finally submits and humbles himself, just as we must submit and humble ourselves to be saved.  God’s plan of redemption – the acceptance and humbling and repentance that secures our place in heaven – is present in the oldest book of the Bible.  How powerful is that?

God asked Job to forgive.

Another interesting thing is that the next thing God tells Job to do is pray for the friends that betrayed and tormented him.  God also goes and has a sit down with the friends, telling them exactly what their sins toward Job are.  But isn’t it interesting that it didn’t just end with God vindicating Job?  He also asked Job to forgive.  It is an example of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus would pray so many centuries later: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” 

God’s will was never that Job should remain in a state of suffering.

Immediately after Job prays for his friends, God starts restoring everything that Job lost, and giving him even more than he had before.  God’s will was never that Job should remain in a state of suffering.  God was using a short season of pain to reveal to Job the sin in himself that was keeping him from a closer, eternal walk with God.  It was all based in love.  Even if it didn’t look like it to Job at the time.  And another hard truth is that we are privileged to know the backstory – the conversation with Satan.  Job never did.  He just knew he was perfectly happy one day, and the next everything was gone.  And there is no indication that he ever knew why in his lifetime.  And there was probably good reason for that, too.  If Job had known why, perhaps he would never have dug down far enough to reveal his sin.

God never wanted sin to enter into the world.

Job is a hard and frightening book to us.  No one wants to suffer like he did.  But in all reality, we will suffer.  Not because God desires it.  He never wanted sin to enter the world.  He always wanted us to live in the Garden.  But Adam and Eve introduced sin and shattered our relationship with God.  And they too did it with the same heart as Job.  They wanted to be like God.  They thought that somehow God was wrong or unjust by withholding that fruit from them.  They were arrogant and entitled.  And now we all pay the price.  But God pursued Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He sought them out and talked to them.  Even His banishing them from the Garden was out of love, so that they would not live forever in sin and distanced from Him.  God had another plan – one that would restore everything and more – and it cost Him His own Son.

I am trying to remember that even in the hard times, God’s only thought toward me is love. 

So I am trying to remember that as I look at the things in my life that are hard, or the things in my life that happened that I wish could have been different, instead of shaking my fist at God and shouting, “How could You have let that happen?” I am trying to remember that even in the hard times, God’s only thought toward me is love.  I am trying to remember God is the cure for sin and the healer of pain.  He allowed Satan to do the things to Job to help Job, but remember – it was Satan that gleefully did all of the hurting.  God is still good and God’s goal from Eve’s first bite of the fruit was to restore everything and more.  And as Job says in chapter 24, verse 3, God’s plans are, “. . . things too wonderful for me to know.”

Lord, please don’t give me so much of what I want that I forget You.

Another verse this week brought it all home.  Proverbs 30:7-9 says, “Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”  That’s my prayer this week.  Lord, please don’t give me so much of what I want that I forget You and think that I don’t need you.  Also, in the places that I lack or hurt, please give me enough that I don’t turn away from You, either.  You, Lord, know the balance.  Help me to trust that even the pain is a gift of love.  Help me to be like the Apostle Paul and be grateful for any thorns in the flesh that keep me coming to You in humility (2 Corinthians 12:7).  And keep me hopeful and joyful, knowing that through the salvation freely offered through acceptance of Jesus as my Lord, I too will someday be restored and more. 

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.